CPC's Blog About Health and Wellness

High Performance Habits. How Extraordinary people become that way.

Tuesday, 3 / 5 / 19

Ever since graduate school I have made a point to read as often as I can, even if it is just a few pages a day. In the recent weeks, I have been reading the book High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard. This book has really hit home and has given me a different take on how I handle each day.

Burchard breaks the book into three sections with the first two sections being habits both personal and social. Those two sections then had three parts to them. Personal Habits is divided into habit 1: seek clarity, habit 2: generate energy and habit 3: raise necessity. Seeking clarity was defined as how one thinks about tomorrow while staying connected with what matters today. Creating that habit can aid you in staying engaged, continuing to grow and stay fulfilled over the long haul without burning out with whatever you do daily.

Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them and it will change your life – Amy Poehler.

Generating energy should not constantly feel like a burden to you. If you struggle with this then most likely your overall happiness and is lower and your enthusiasm for taking on challenges is lower. This makes it extremely difficult to be a leader. The more energy someone has, the more likely they are to work their way to the top of their field of work or interest. The last personal habit was raise necessity. This chapter started off with a quote by Albert Einstein “Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason, mastery demands all of a person”. This quote is the epitome of what we at CPC do day in and day out.

We must be “all in” every time we coach or else we are doing a disservice to our athletes and clients. Burchard defines necessity as the emotional drive that makes great performance a must instead of a preference. Necessity demands us to take action not just want to or think about taking that action.

Section two in the book that focused in on the social habits was also broken into three sections. Section 1: increase productivity, section 2: develop influence and section 3: demonstrate courage. Increase productivity can be related back to my previous blog about goal setting. Burchard talks about how the fundamentals of becoming more productive are setting goals and maintaining energy and focus. This then tends to create a greater sense of flow and enjoyment of what you are doing! The second social habit stated was develop influence. This is often a struggle for most individuals. People often struggle to gain influence in their personal and professional lives because they do not ask for what they want. We are all guilty of this. We all underestimate the willingness of others to engage and help in what we are trying to achieve or do.

A powerful quote in this section in which I shared with the CPC staff because it resonated what we are about: “Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them and it will change your life” – Amy Poehler. As a leader, you must surround yourself with individuals who not only make your team better but inspire you to be better day in and day out.

The third section of social habits was demonstrate courage. In this section Burchard talks about honoring the struggle and meeting difficulties and not backing down from them. Data shows that courage and high performance are directly related. In this section, it was stated that courage is the cornerstone habit of high performance.

Now I want you think of these statements and ask yourself what do you do? Do you speak up for yourself even when it is hard? Do you respond quickly to life’s challenges and emergencies rather than avoid them? Do you often take action despite fear? Do you rarely act outside your comfort zone? Think about what you do each day when you are faced with a challenge. The key take away that I found in this section was this statement: The important thing is that you define what being more courageous means to you and start living that way.

High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard was a great read! I would highly recommend adding it to your reading list. Each section can be related to life in general as well as the work place. Be about it!